Strategy

06/28/2011

Matrix roles aren’t like traditional roles and require a different kind of thinking. If you are in a matrix role and keep thinking like you are in a traditional role with clear lines of authority and responsibility, you will dramatically limit what you get done because you will unintentionally set up political circumstances, disenfranchise. Your relationships will be too limited, your perspective too narrow and your solutions confined, rudimentary, parochial, provincial, insular, unsophisticated. Yikes.

Its no great secret that the higher you get in an organization, the broader your organizational sights need to be set. You are expected to be up on a broader set of information, and make decisions based on that broad view. You are expected to connect the happenings on one end to those on the other, see the ripple effects across a wide body of water, not just in your little puddle.

Interestingly enough, for those that are expert in matrix management, those sights widen at an earlier stage than for others. They build their knowledge outside the margins, as well as their relationships and responsibilities. They think strategically long before that ever becomes a job requirement.

So what does zooming out look like? It means building knowledge of your industry and organization, not just your piece of things. It means building relationships outside of your function and applying these to make decisions, influence and generally get stuff done better and faster.

Know who the real customers are (internal, external, primary, secondary, direct, indirect--not as obvious as it seems), their issues & needs

Understand the markets the business plays in & challenges in these markets;

Know the competitive landscape & where the opportunities & threats may be;

Proactively share knowledge of the business & its strategy with others (just doing #1- 5 is not enough, you have to do something with it!)

Apply the knowledge of the business & its strategy to prioritize, make decisions & solve problems. (Again, just doing #1- 5 is not enough, you have to do something with it!)

Often this information is not served up neatly on a platter or even made accessible to everyone in an organization, which means you will have to dig for it. Here's what you can do:

Start with staying on top of your company-wide publications and communications (your company may do a great job communicating the strategy, but if you do not take an interest in it and seek out the information then you are missing a great opportunity). These are more than rah-rah mediums, they can provide helpful information for you to think about your role strategically.

Consistently scan company websites, newsletters, attend "town hall" meetings to find information on strategy and goals or inquire about them.

Find someone you trust to help you interpret the information, help put it in perspective for you in your role.

To stay on top of external market, customer and competitor information, go to the internet—there are many services that you can subscribe to that will automatically send you alerts when there is new information about a company or industry (for example Yahoo Alerts). Or sign up for an RSS feed of a company’s blog or follow them on Twitter.

09/15/2010

Let me start by sharing a great blog/rant on this subject from LeadershipFreak. Great post, great comments. Now here's my two cents worth...

Mission, Vision, Values (MVV) ARE important, we just put the emphasis on the development of them, not the integration of them! I don't let clients spend more than 4 hours on drafting these. But spend countless hours doing these three things:

Link every initiative, decision, priority to your MVV. Employees say things that your new initiative is just the "flavor of the month," or that decisions "come out of left field." Guess what? If you have clear Mission, Vision, Values and link everything you do back to them, things are far less random!

Link it to behaviors: What, specifically, do you want people to do with the MVV? What behaviors support the MVV? What behaviors run counter? Then reward and recognize those behaviors!

And of course, the obvious: Communicating and re-communicating: don't get bored with the message; use multiple ways to communicate it

Its not about the statements, it what you do with them. And, if you spend all that time on the statements, throw them up on a wall and never return to them again, then they are meaningless!

09/07/2010

"Great gal, super on the tactical and the day-to-day, boy she really gets things done. But she doesn't get the strategy thing at all."

"He's a great manager, his people really like and respect him. But he can't see the forest for the trees."

I have heard these quotes, and variations of these quotes, for more years than I'd like to count. Most of us are a long way from having this strategy 'thing' figured out. It tends to be obvious when people have it. But when they don't, we have a tough time saying what 'it' is--what's missing, what it is they don't or can't do.

So let's bring 'being strategic' down from the cumulus clouds to us mere mortals on earth. 'Being strategic' can really be thought of as three specific competencies: (1) knowing the business strategy; (2) thinking strategically; (3) behaving strategically. As you can see, these three items are really separate and distinct. So, to just say 'you need to be strategic' doesn't lend much guidance as to what the issue really is.

The first skill is pretty straightforward. You need to have a good base of knowledge of the business at a strategic level. Depending on your role/industry/company, this can mean many things. It may mean having a working understanding of the business mission (what the organization is in the business of, what the organization wants to be when it grows up), and specific strategies (how to enact the mission and achieve the vision). It may expand to understanding the market, competitors and regulations as well.

The second skill is trickier--because you can't see it. Strategic thinking is how those wheels turn in your head and whether the hamster on the wheel stays on that same wheel all the time or jumps ship to a bigger wheel. Very often the complaint I hear is, "I just don't have time to be strategic." Sorry, that's a cop out. You may not have time to build a strategic plan and put it in a 5-inch binder (that's skill number three, covered below), but you can, and must, pause long enough in any given situation and think strategically. It takes a little discipline, but it is very possible even for the busiest of us. It means stepping back and viewing things from a broader perspective (maybe outside your role, team or function), from a longer time horizon, or seeing patterns and relationships, not just specific events or data points.

The third skill is the one we all think of as 'being strategic.' Behaving Strategically is the tangible one--the one that produces that big strat planning binder, so it must be important! And it is important--that is, if you actually do more than make the binder and let it sit on your shelf (more on that in a future post!). The problem here is even if you are good at strategic planning, if you don't act strategically on that plan, it really isn't much of a skill.

So that's a framework for thinking about it. What is your strength? Where are you lacking? Here's a quick, simple way to assess yourself (you may even want a boss or colleague to fill this out to get a different perspective!): Being Strategic Self Assessment

My next three posts will cover each of the three competencies in detail. Looking forward to exploring this with you!

David H. Maister: The Trusted AdvisorThis one is written from a consulting perspective, but is a great resource for anyone that is in a functional role (HR, IT, Finance, etc) in an organization. (****)